After the Party's Over
by imdoingthiswhy
Summary: Shameless post birthday party fluff. (I probably should apologize.)


After the Party's Over

After the initial shock of his surprise party, Castle slowly relaxed and enjoyed the celebration, wandering among the friends and family who were there. As the party calmed, he asked Kate what part of her case had been staged. After an hour or so, knowing she wanted it to be over now that she figured out what had happened, he told her to go and do whatever she needed to do. The party had started around dinner time, so it wasn't that late yet. "It's going to be burning through your mind until you follow up on it. The party shows no sign of winding down yet; so I'll be here a while, then I'll go back home and wait up for you," he promised.

Kate was torn, wanting to tie up the loose ends while not wanting to leave Castle.

Having heard part of their conversation, Martha joined them and agreed. "He needs to spend some time with his other guests, too, but we continually have to keep dragging him away from you. The two of you are like magnets. Do you think you can close your case out tonight?"

"I'll need to check on a couple of things and talk to the suspect; but if everything pans out the way I think it will, it shouldn't take long."

"Then think how well you'll sleep if you don't have to worry about it tomorrow."

"But I can't leave you and Alexis to clean up after this."

"Please." She waved her off dramatically. "I've hired someone to come in and take care of that. We're all far too tired."

"But…"

"Just go and take care of it. We all understand."

"I'm going to go back and change. I'll bring the wheelchair down when I leave and ask Javi to meet me and pick it up. I'm pretty sure all the hustling around on crutches is wearing your son down." She looked at him lovingly and kissed Castle, telling him she'd be back as soon as she could.

xxxxx

"Did you get the murderer?" Castle asked from his wheelchair when she came home.

"I did."

"Tell me about it."

She smiled and told him the story, pouring them some wine as she finished telling it. He again let her know how special the party had been to him and pulled her into his lap, wheeling them into his bedroom as they joked about payback.

Lying in bed in the afterglow of extremely satisfying birthday sex, the couple snuggled together catching their breath. They were exhausted, both by the day and their recent activity, but still too wound to sleep just yet.

"Sorry you had to do most of the work this time," Castle said, softly kissing her temple. "Especially after you worked so hard on the case at the precinct and tried to take care of me around planning a party. I realize that sometimes I didn't seem appreciative enough."

"Well, you just made up for any of that," she answered with a mischievous grin and a quick kiss. "Your knee may not be ready for action, but everything else was. And besides, I did spend some time this week trying to gaslight you."

"You were pretty convincing, too. My mother was so proud of you."

"I have to admit that seeing you so upset when I didn't believe you…I almost caved. You looked so hurt that I thought I might not be able to stay with it. I called your mom for advice on the way back to the precinct."

He seemed simultaneously surprised, pleased, and puzzled. "You're calling my mother for advice now?"

"Now and then…usually about you."

"You do realize you can't buy into everything she tells you?"

"She's a strong, smart woman," Kate answered, swatting him lightly on his chest. "But, for your peace of mind, remember I'm a detective, Castle. I know how to ferret out the parts that count." That brought a chuckle from her partner.

"Thank you…for everything you've done this week," he said appreciatively. "I'm not a great patient under normal circumstances, and I'm sure trying to solve a murder while being a little loopy on pain meds didn't help much."

"No, but sometimes it was pretty entertaining."

"Glad to provide you some diversion," he answered drily, earning him a chuckle from her. There was a hesitant pause, before he spoke again, more seriously. "Before you try anything like this murder party again, though… Try to find a different way to get me there…something other than letting me think you're about to be stabbed with a big knife, okay? That was… I thought I was going to have a heart attack to go along with the broken knee cap."

"I was afraid that might be too much. I'm sorry, Rick. Alexis and Martha and I discussed it. We knew it would only be a few minutes, and it would be the most certain way to get you there. You always have my back, and we had the boys right around the corner so you wouldn't have to wait for them. You had to get _them_ to kick in the door; but even on crutches, you were still the first one in to look for me. It was pretty impressive…and not the first time you've come across looking like my hero. I wasn't the only one impressed."

"But it wasn't real."

"It was real to you. At first we thought you were angry. I thought I'd made a huge mistake and you hated it."

"Only the part where I thought I might find you with stab wounds or worse."

"Never again, I promise."

"The rest was amazing. I can't believe Mother had a student rig a camera to let them know when I was watching."

"I had no idea how much goes into planning a production like that. Your mom was a force of nature."

"She's good at what she does…drives me crazy with it now and then, but she's good." There was another pause, and he looked at Kate with a teasing twinkle in his eyes. "Your hero, huh?"

"I was wondering how long it would take for that to register. Yeah, I guess you've been my hero a few times."

"You only admitted that because it's my birthday, right?"

"Well, technically your birthday was over a couple of hours ago…but…well, maybe. Part of your present."

"Can we trade sides of the bed tonight?" he asked. "I want to snuggle, and when my bad knee is in the middle, you're afraid to do that."

She laughed and moved across him carefully. "Sometimes you're such a girl," she teased.

"Hey. Based on those little growls that drive me insane and the whimpers and moans I was hearing not long ago, I refuse to believe there was anything remotely girly about my half of what was just going on in this room."

"All those words to say, 'Am not!'" she teased with a grin as she settled close to his uninjured side and draped an arm over his waist.

"Hey, you knew you were getting a writer in this deal," he shot back, pulling her closer. "Too late now. Besides, what fun would that be? Two very unimaginative words."

"Yeah. Why settle for two when twenty or thirty would do?"

"Exactly." He kissed her and sighed. "I think the pain pill is kicking in. I only took it because I overdid it a little tonight."

"It's just as well. I have to be up getting ready for work in about five hours."

"Then snuggle up and get some sleep." Sounding as if he might drift off any minute, he asked, "Now that my own special murder case is over, will you call me and let me consult on the phone…tell me what's going on with the next real one?"

"Yeah. I'll call."

By then he was obviously losing the battle with the medicine and drifting off as he only half successfully tried to tell her he might do some writing the next day.

She laughed softly and kissed his chest as she cuddled against him. "Happy birthday, Writer-man," she whispered as she closed her eyes.


End file.
